F. V. Hunt and acoustics at Harvard University

Abstract

Soon after his arrival from Ohio as a graduate student of G. W. Pierce in 1925, Frederick Vinton Hunt established himself as a Harvard scientist to be considered seriously. He submitted two doctoral theses, joined the faculties of physics and applied physics, and in 1940 graduated his first doctoral student, Leo Beranek. He founded and directed the war-time Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory for the Navy, and he mentored a total of 70 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows prior to his retirement in 1971, a year before his death. While the acoustics tradition at Harvard effectively ended with Ted Hunt’s departure, a number of individuals that he mentored have developed and supported acoustics programs elsewhere in academia. Others have made significant contributions in government and industry, and several have followed his lead in contributing much to the Acoustical Society of America. Beyond his personal impact, his legacy includes 29 recipients of the Society’s F. V. Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, the first of which being Steven Garrett (1978–79, now at Penn State), and the recent production under ASA auspices of a CD that makes generally available the 61 Technical Memoranda from Hunt’s Acoustics Research Laboratory.